George Jay Gould Jr.

George Jay Gould II (March 28, 1896 – June 7, 1963) was an American lawyer and oil company executive. Early life Gould was born on March 28, 1896, in Manhattan, New York City. He was one of seven children born to millionaire George Jay Gould I (1864–1923) and former actress Edith Kingdon Gould (1864–1921). Among his siblings were Kingdon Gould Sr., Jay Gould II, Marjorie Gwynne Gould (wife of Anthony Joseph Drexel III), Helen Vivien Gould (wife of John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies), Edith Catherine Gould, and Gloria Gould (wife of Henry A. Bishop II and Wallace McFarlane Barker). His namesake father was the eldest son of the former Helen Day Miller and Jay Gould, a leading American railroad developer and speculator who has been referred to as one of the ruthless robber barons of the Gilded Age, whose success at business made him one of the richest men of his era. His aunt, Anna Gould, was married to two European aristocrats, Boni de Castellane (the elder son and heir apparent of the Marquis of Castellane) and Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duke of Sagan (Boni's cousin). Gould graduated from Columbia University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa (and had honors in French and History), and Columbia Law School.